The Hindu Business Line : PM likely to visit AP

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is likely to visit Andhra Pradesh in the first week of July for a firsthand assessment of the situation on the agricultural front in the light of increasing number of farmers committing suicide in the State.

Disclosing this at the District Collectors' conference here on Saturday, the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said he had requested the Prime Minister to visit one or two districts to assess the situation to which Dr Singh had agreed.

The Chief Minister said that as per the reports in the press, about five to six farmers were committing suicides in the State every day. While the opposition parties were stating that over 500 farmers committed suicide since he took over as the Chief Minister, the official figures stated that the number of such incidents so far were 123.

He asked the district collectors not to hide the incidents of suicides by farmers. He told them to verify the facts and mitigate the plight of farmers. He wanted the collectors to take "serious note" of the Government's policy to help the families of the farmers who had committed suicide and implement it in right earnest. There should be a regular monitoring of its implementation.

The Chief Minister said that the district collectors should ensure that moneylenders do not harass farmers. If necessary, an expert committee or a House committee would be constituted by the Legislative Assembly to go into the incidents of suicides by farmers. "We shall all work to remove the problem from its root so that no farmer in this State is compelled to take such drastic step."

Stating that the growth rate of agriculture had declined from 4.2 per cent to less than 2 per cent per annum in the last decade, he asked the district collectors to strive for putting the rural economy in the State back on tracks. The hitherto neglected sectors like agriculture and rural development should be given priority in the process of development. The effort of the Government would be to take special steps to increase the agricultural growth rate to 6 per cent annually.

He reiterated that the Government was committed to completion of all the ongoing major irrigation projects in five years at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore.

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